LIVESAY CURRENTLY FOURTH AT BASSMASTER CLASSIC | Coverage resumes early Saturday morning

Lee Livesay is within striking distance after day one of fishing in the 2024 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic.

Livesay, the 2004 Kilgore High alum and former football standout, is right in the mix, currently in fourth place in the tournament of the world’s best fishermen, being contested at Grand Lake O the Cherokees in Tulsa, Okla.

Justin Hamner of Northport, Ala., just outside Tuscaloosa, is leading Livesay and everyone else with a day-one total of 22 pounds, 6 ounces.

Closely behind is Cody Huff with 21 pounds, 2 ounces, and Adam Rasmussen in third (19 pounds, 5 ounces).

Livesay’s fourth-place total is 18 pounds, 15 ounces, and that’s with five fish caught on day one.

The classic resumes Saturday morning live on Fox Sports 2 at 6:30 a.m., and airs for three hours until 9:30 a.m., then anyone who’d like to continue watching live coverage can do so with streaming coverage online at bassmaster.com from 10:30 a.m. until 2 p.m. The weigh-in is at 5 p.m., with a live broadcast of that also on bassmaster.com.

Then it’s Championship Sunday, with coverage on bassmaster.com from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m. (and continuing there), but Fox Sports 1 airs the coverage on TV from 9 a.m. until 11, and then the tournament moves to main FOX Network from 11 a.m. until 2.

The final weigh-in is at 5 p.m. Sunday.

Livesay has made 68 tournament appearances for the Bassmaster Elite series. He’s got three in the Classic, but no wins just yet. He does have four wins on the tour, one of them at Lake Fork a few years’ back, and has 12 top-10 finishes, 24 top-20 finishes and 31 finishes in the top 30.

The 38-year-old has caught a staggering career weight of 2,478 pounds and 14 ounces.

That Lake Fork victory in 2021 saw Lee catch five bass weighing 42 pounds, three ounces on the final day of the tournament, which remains the third-highest single-day weight in the history of Bassmaster.